crossfit yoga

On Tuesday it’s Halloween, all hallows eve. A time during which the gate between the world of the living and the dead is wide open – allegedly. In any case, we’re going to take this opportunity to spend a good amount of time in savasana, the corpse pose, to let the physical body rest and quieten down the mind.
In other words, we’ll be throwing a few restorative shapes, before I take you through a progressive muscle relaxation. PMR is an excellent way to not only improve awareness of your physical body in space (aka, proprioception) by targetting individual muscles, or muscle groups, but also to sharpen your focus by drawing your attention to a specific body part for a brief moment in time, and linking that to your breath – sound familiar?
Following on from last week, let me reiterate just how important it is that you allow yourself sufficient capacity to recover from your training in the gym. Physical exercise is a stressor on your system, even more so when performed at high intensity.
As we grind through those workouts day in, day out, we tend to forget how to breathe properly (remember 17.5, anyone? Dark times), and this can ultimately lead to, or contribute to, muscle tension and muscle spasms (abmat sit-ups for reps, need I say more?)
Proper breathing is an often under-estimated tool you can use to aid your performance. As with everything else, it’s something that you improve through regular practice – all it takes is a little conscious effort.
It’s a fundamental part of the practice of yoga, and next week we’ll be drawing on this specifically to aid your recovery and general relaxation.
As it is starting to get a bit nippy now, please bring adequate clothing and layers, as we will be horizontal for a good part of the class. Take a pair of warm socks, perhaps even a thin blanket and/or an eye mask, if you have one.Click here to book in, see you bright and early on Tuesday!

Working out at the gym puts stress on your system. In order to get the most out of your training regime, you need to make adequate provisions for recovery – eating, sleeping etc. – no rocket science here, and you know this already anyway! The focus in this week’s Yoga for Athletes class will be on inversions. That’s not just handstands, headstands and so on by the way. An inversion is any posture whereby the head is lower than the heart. An excellent way to calm down the CNS, and of course to build strength in the arms and shoulders, as well as to hone those ninja skills.
We’ll be practising a restorative form of pranayama (‘control of breath’) to begin with, before exploring different progressions of the traditional yogi headstand (sirsasana) as well as the forearm stand (pincha mayurasana). If there mere thought of that makes you feel a little queasy – fear not! We will be building up to these big poses safely and with plenty of wall space to support. If you’re a HSPU ninja, come along to mix it up a little, get those rhomboids to work and add to your gymnastics ninja repertoire. If you’re working on building strength to hold yourself upside down – this class is for you, to get used to holding your weight over your shoulders in a way that is stable. Change of perspective and a bit of added zen, how’s that for a good start to the day? Click here to book, see ya there!

Standard post-workout state. If you train hard, you gotta let your system recover!

Now that is a good question! Depends on whether you ask a yogi or a CrossFitter! In any case, it’s one of the shapes we’ll be getting into during Tuesday’s practice. In this week’s class, we’re going to focus on mobilising the spine by getting into all sorts of twists, so be prepared to wring out those obliques – because we all love a bit of extra-curricular accessory work, right? Thought so ?
Then, we’ve got a couple backbends to release the lower back, a few shoulder and wrist mobilisers as well as a sun salutation flow to make sure you’re awake and ready to rule the day by the time we wrap up.
Gonna be a good crew, please book in here if you would like to join! Tuesday rise & shine/flex my friends! See you there, meanwhile I hope you all took today as an opportunity to take that fitness outside into the sunshine!

If you’ve done yoga before, you will have practiced it, and if you haven’t, you may well have heard of it – the sun salutation, or surya namaskar, by its Sanskrit name. The sun salutation is a foundational sequence of roughly a dozen asanas (yoga postures), performed in the same order and usually at the beginning of a yoga practice. There are different variations, e.g. the classical sun salutation, surya namaskar A & B – you’ll be coming across them all in my classes. Now, let’s look at why you should integrate them into your programme to complement your training at the gym.

No equipment needed

The sun salutation is a type of bodyweight exercise and you can do it anywhere. I like to take my practice outside whenever possible, making the most of London’s many green spaces. You’ll have the choreography down in no time, meaning you’ll bust out those downward facing dogs and baby cobras without even thinking about what comes when before you know it.

Downward-facing Dog

It makes for a great warm-up, cool-down or a full-on workout in its own right

It all depends on how you pace it, and how many rounds you complete. In vinyasa flow yoga, the style in which I teach, it’s the rhythm of your breath that leads you from one posture to the next, meaning you – or on occasion I, if you practice with me in class – set the pace. It’s a great way to warm up before a workout, and to bring that heart rate down when you’re hanging out of your arse after a savage metcon.

It mobilises the spine

The practice of yoga asana aims to move the spine in all directions by means of forward folds, backbends and twists. The sun salutation incorporates a number of poses that repeatedly flex and extend the spine, particularly the lumbar. This promotes spinal disc health as the biochemical process controlling disc hydration is stimulated through on and off pressure. The spinal discs already have very poor blood supply – now add to that gravity from walking upright, general lack of movement due to a sedentary lifestyle for many of us, natural degeneration through ageing, as well as compression under load from weightlifting and you have…less than ideal conditions for your discs to stay happy and healthy!

Bhujangasana – Cobra

It makes for happy hammies

Struggling to keep a neutral spine when deadlifting? Tight hamstrings are a common plight, and not only among athletes. There’s three of these muscles – they originate at the sitting bone, and the back of the femur (that’s your thigh bone) respectively. Tightness in this area may cause the pelvis to tuck under, and therefore compromise the integrity of the spine in CrossFit movements such as the deadlift. As with everything, consistency is key, and I guarantee you that you will be able to touch your toes no matter how impossible that may seem at this point in time – incidentally it’s one of the most frequent reasons I hear people give for not coming to class. No more excuses now, get yourself on the mat or the gym floor and start stretching!

Uttanasana – Standing Forward Fold

It helps you get to that next ninja level

The sun salutation engages approximately 140 muscles in the body, using nothing but your own bodyweight. How’s that for a well-rounded workout? Mindful movement helps cultivate proprioception, i.e. the awareness of whereabouts in space your various body parts are, and controlling that – aka ninja skills. If you’re struggling with certain movements such as the push-up, try a chaturanga dandasana variation I’ll be teaching you, whereby you’ll learn how to gradually lower yourself down towards the ground from plank, eventually hovering a couple inches above the floor.
I’m running a weekly yoga class on Tuesday mornings, 7-8am at Gales Gardens, starting Tuesday Oct 10th. Suitable for all levels, complete beginners most welcome! Click here to book in, and feel free to email me at christine[at]crossfitlondonuk.com if you have any questions.Click here if you missed last week’s post on who I am, and what you can expect from my classes.

Hey team,
Your Crossfit coaches help you get swole, now it’s time to get flexy! Come and join me on the mat for an hour on Tuesday mornings at 7am, starting Oct 10th. I’m stoked to meet you guys & gals!Who am I?
I was brought up in Bavaria in the Southeast of Germany and have been living in the Big Smoke for the past 12 years. When I’m not working in my job as a quality manager in construction, I try and spend as much time outside as possible. Hiking, riding my bike, my skateboard, climbing, running the occasional obstacle course or endurance race – I’ll take anything over sitting on my arse in front of the telly! Crossfit helps me get into shape for my endeavours, while a regular yoga practice helps me stay supple…and keep a level head!How did I get into CF?
I was looking for a type of training to help me get stronger and level out a few board sports-induced strength imbalances. So initially I started doing CF to help my skateboarding. Needless to say, I’ve never looked back and am now increasingly gravitating towards putting that fitness to good use outside of the gym and testing out that general physical preparedness!Random fact?
In January I rowed the full marathon distance of 42.195m on an erg unbroken in 3:30:08, for no reason other than that I wanted to, after racking up nearly 240.000m prior. Hit me up at christine[at]crossfitlondonuk.com for tips on distance rowing or if you’re keen to find out more on how to prepare for, and get through this kinda thing.Why yoga?
Um, why not?! I could write a novel on the many physical and mental benefits and why I think everyone should be doing it!
Keep your eyes peeled for upcoming posts on how a regular yoga practice will positively impact on your performance at the gym. Meanwhile, you can also head over to my website at www.yogishapes.com to find out more about me and my philosophy.I’m just not down with this new age hippy shiz…and how do you even ‘radiate from the heart space’?!
Oh good, cos neither am I! My classes are primarily built around specific muscle groups with a strong emphasis on alignment and anatomy. I do believe in mindfulness as an extremely powerful tool to improve performance, especially if you’re competing or generally enjoy pushing your limits. The word yoga means to yoke, or to unite, and through the practice of asana, the physical postures, as well as pranayama, a variety of breathing techniques, we aim to establish, and strengthen that mind-body connection. However you won’t find any flowery language, chanting or incense in my classes. What can you expect then?
A friendly space where every body is welcome – my yoga classes are suitable for all levels, so don’t worry about not being flexible enough! Just as in Crossfit, modifications are available for the postures and I will offer hands-on adjustments to help you get the most out of your practice. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!Favourite workout?
Small:
3 RFT – 1k row, 50 burpees, 50 box jumps @ 24″, 800m runFavourite dessert?
Banoffee pie!!!
My weekly class will run at Gales Gardens on Tuesday mornings from 7-8am, starting Oct 10th. Book in here to get your stretch on!